Kurdish standard EMNIST-like character dataset

Abstract

A dataset was created by collecting handwritten samples of distinct Kurdish characters. The dataset consists primarily of 58 characters, and approximately 3800 adult volunteers who are native Kurdish speakers participated in the collection process. Each participant was requested to fill two rows in a character form printed on A4 landscape papers. These papers were divided into sets of four pages, with 18 columns and 10 rows of characters on each page, except for the fourth page in each set, which had 40 cells. To ensure a comprehensive dataset, over 760 sets were prepared and distributed across various universities and institutions. The collected samples underwent scanning, cropping, and preprocessing procedures following the characteristics established by the EMNIST project. The purpose of these procedures was to standardize the dataset and ensure uniformity in the representation of all characters.

Keywords

• Kurdish characters
• Handwritten character recognition
• Central Kurdish
• Optical character recognition
• Kurdish handwritten